Locked and Loaded
by Miss Moondust
Summary: Veronica and Craig are two siblings with a passion for killing walkers. While Veronica works towards staying alive, Craig keeps getting them into dangerous situations. Will their abnormal fascination with exterminating the undead change once they connect with a group of survivors outside of Atlanta?


I had never prepared for this… well, nobody did. I guess what I really mean is that I had never thought anything like this could ever even happen. I spent my whole life, up until the virus, training to be a gymnast. If none of this would have happened then I would have been going to the Olympics this year. Things like that don't matter anymore though. The only thing that matters now is surviving, and helping other people survive if possible. I wish we could have saved our parents at least. Now it's just my tough-as-nails brother Craig and I…

"What's that noise Ron?" Craig whispered, suspiciously looking around. "Uhh, I didn't hear anything…" I'm not falling for his tricks. Even in a zombie apocalypse Craig still finds time to scare me half to death with his pranks. Boys will be boys I guess, but you'd think at 23 years old he would grow up a little more. "I'm serious this time Veronica." His face hardened as his eyes scanned every possible place that he might spy a walker. I knew he had to be serious if he referred to me as Veronica instead of a nickname. I cautiously moved out of the main room stepping outside about a foot. I smirked as I drew back my new bow and shot a walker that was slowly lurching down the street. "Woohoo! Another point for me!" I cheered. "Yeah…nice. Now help me load up this ammo." Now that I was in the lead of our walker-killing competition he was not about to congratulate me. "We both know you'll be ahead of me by at least 15 walkers by tomorrow night." I said, trying to make him feel a little better, even though it was probably true. "Oh yeah! That's right!" he boasted. This was his way of rubbing it in my face that he was a better shot than I was. His ego is way too big sometimes. "Well, I'm an Olympic gymnast, not a Marine." I said in attempts to mock him. He just rolled his eyes as he finished loading up the rest of the ammo, a few pistols, hunting rifles, and semi-automatics. We had been more than lucky to come across this small army base. I wonder where they all went. Had they all turned into walkers? I doubt it, they probably just all left. But why didn't they take any of these awesome guns? Well they're our guns now. My wandering thoughts were interrupted by Craig's seriousness. "Alright, let's roll out Ron; it's getting too dark to be safe for long." And we were off. Craig drove this time, giving me a chance to sleep… but I would probably just let my mind wander some more before I dozed off.

As days go by it becomes hard for me to remember what life was like before. It gets even harder for me to remember the faces of my friends and family. Ugh, I don't want to think about how much I miss people. I love my brother, obviously, but I haven't seen another _living_ person in… hmm, probably about a month. It's hard to keep track of time. I hate that. I hate a lot of things lately. I guess the end of the world has that kind of negative effect on a person's outlook on life. At least I can take all of my frustration out on killing walkers.

"_Wh-where am I? What's going on?" I awoke to someone shaking me. "Cara?" My voice was hoarse. "Come on Ronni, they're coming! We've gotta get to Atlanta! It's safe there!" Cara looked so afraid, and ran into the distance so fast that I couldn't catch up. She's gone. Where is she! She's going to Atlanta! I have to find her. I have to find my best friend!  
_

The truck hit a bump in the road that shook me slightly. My eyes slowly opened. It was just a dream? How long had I been asleep? It was still dark out, but barely. The sun was about to start rising. "ATLANTA!" I practically screamed it when I saw the sign. It was more than a creepy coincidence that I just dreamt about Atlanta, and the exit sign on the side of the road read 'Atlanta, 30 miles'. "Craig we have to go to Atlanta. I think that Cara is there. She came to me in…" He cut me off. He does that way too often, just because he's two years older, I get no respect. "Whatever, I was planning on going to Atlanta anyway. It's supposedly safe, and even if it's not we can kick some major walker ass."

By the time we reached Atlanta it was well into the morning. There was no sign of anybody, at least not yet. We parked by some railroad tracks, near a white van. There was still nobody around. But wait! I gasped as I saw him. A man, covered in blood and dirt, running our way. I don't think he saw us, but he ran directly for the van which was about 30 feet away from us. The keys must have been in the ignition because the van rumbled and in a flash the man was peeling down the stone road like a bat out of hell.

Craig and I just exchanged a strange glance between one another. We both knew how weird that was. But for some reason we were both still so inclined to venture into the most likely death ridden streets of Atlanta. "So… you ready to go rid the world of a few pests?" His voice sounded all manly and he pumped a shotgun to add emphasis. I just laughed. I felt like we were in some kind of action movie. Cool! "You know it bro!" I'm getting hyped already just thinking about it.

Any normal person would think we were completely crazy. But I guess once death is all around you, you begin to stop being afraid of it. Plus our chances of survival were more than just good. We had a ton of guns and ammo, way more than two people would need. And we were both extremely physically fit. We never stick around for any situations that we don't think we can handle, but that rarely happens. As we snuck our way further into the city we quickly realized that this safe-zone was far from safe. We remained silent, until Craig led us into a dead end alleyway. This spot was perfect, the tall building behind us meant that we couldn't be ambushed from the back, and there were buildings on either side of us too. There was only one place that the walkers could come in, from the street. And to our luck, there was a ladder leading up to one of the roofs, offering us a quick escape if needed. I had to admit, we were damn good at our walker "assassinations" as we liked to refer to them as. I gave Craig a nod of approval and he returned the action. "Time to ring the dinner bell. Too bad we aren't on the menu. Sound the alarm Ronni." I'm glad that even during a zombie apocalypse we can both still have a sense of humor.

My voice was girly and high pitched, the complete opposite of Craig's deep manly voice, but my scream was shrill and ear shattering. I took a deep breath and let out a long scream. Craig liked to call this the walker siren, because it drew the walkers in so well. Once again, any normal person would think we were crazy. Within minutes walkers started appearing at the entrance of the alleyway about 50 feet from us. "Showtime!" I said excitedly as I flashed Craig a winning smile. We both drew up our guns and popped off headshots at each walker who entered the alley. 20, 30, 50…damn. They just kept coming. "I think everyone in Atlanta has come to say hello, how about it Craig?" He laughed, reloaded, and continued taking out walkers. "This is way too easy, how about we venture out into the streets?" he said it so casually. Was he really that stupid? "Uh… I- I don't really think..." Before I could even finish my sentence he started making his way up the alley towards the street. "Craig! Please don't do this!" I called out to him, but I knew it was useless. Craig's biggest problem is that he thinks he's invincible. The truth is I've saved his life countless times, and he's done the same for me. We watch each other's backs. If you're going to be crazy, you at least have to be smart. And this was definitely not smart. I trailed after him, I knew I was going to regret this but somebody had to make sure he didn't get himself killed.

The street was packed with walkers, just as I'd suspected. Craig was already making his way down the street, jumping on top of cars that were parked all over, with walkers hot on his trail. "Ugh!" I grunted, "Craig you're being an idiot." Mumbling under my breath would do me no good now. I followed in Craig's footsteps, using my cat-like balance to leap from car to car. At least I could use my insane gymnastics skills for something during the end of the world. Craig finally stopped when he reached a large army tank. There was a large duffle bag on the ground beside the tank… with barrels sticking out of it. More guns! Sweet! I hopped up alongside Craig and we went back to killing the walkers. Before I knew it the tank was swarmed with the undead. I wish we would have just stayed in the alleyway. But there's nothing I can do about it now. Just then a walker grabbed my foot, causing me to lose my balance. There was no recovering from my loss of footing, but there was no way in hell I wanted to fall into a pile of hungry walkers.

I did the next best thing I could think of. With my one foot that was still planted on the tank I thrust myself into the air, flipping myself backwards over all of the walkers and landing safely behind them. I didn't have much time to react, although I did have enough time to wish that somebody could have caught this epic moment on camera. "Watch my back!" I yelled, sprinting as fast as I could away from the hoard, dodging walkers and parked cars along the way. I didn't even look behind me, in life-or-death situations you don't have a split second to spare. Once I thought I was safe I hoisted myself up onto a minivan with a bumper sticker that read "#1 Soccer Mom". I checked out my new surroundings, Craig was halfway down the street. I shouldn't be this far away from him. That's when I heard voices, I couldn't tell where they were coming from. But I definitely knew that I wasn't imagining them. I tried to listen to see if I could hear them again. It sounded like the voices were getting closer. Unfortunately these voices distracted me long enough that I didn't see the walkers approaching. I popped off rounds at each one of them. That's when I saw her.

Every muscle tightened, and my body became stiff as a board. A wave of every emotion rushed through me. Everything around me became a blur, except for her. All I could do was stare. I felt myself falling backwards, off of the van, and onto the ground. I scrambled until my back hit the wall of a building. Tears started forming in my eyes. This can't be happening. "No. No. No." I just kept repeating it over and over. Her bright red hair was covered in blood, and caked with mud. Her skin was once glowing and fresh, but was now sickly, dirty, and had chunks of flesh missing. Her emerald green eyes were replaced by gray clouds. How could this happen? Cara came to me in my dreams. She was the one who told me to come to Atlanta. And now here she was, dead, standing only feet away from me. That's when I snapped out of it. My brain and senses started functioning again, and I realized that I was about to be surrounded. I quickly pulled myself to my feet but there was nowhere to run. My gun had fallen out of reach when I plummeted onto the ground from atop the van. Craig was nowhere in sight. There is no way I am making it out of this alive. All I could do was close my eyes. I am afraid of death _now_.


End file.
